I must take issue with statements by Natalie Johnson Lee, Ron Edwards and others who are widely recognized as leaders of the black community in their response to latest controversy over Thandiwe Peebles performance as school superintendent.
Ron Edwards writes, As Natalie Johnson Lee points out, the whites have a problem with Dr. Peebles’ “attitude.” When you have principals and teachers and the DFL all dragging their feet fighting reform (testing, accountability for kids not learning, and sabotaging minorities’ alternatives to get out of the mediocre sorry state of the Minneapolis Public Schools with charter schools and vouchers), we can only conclude that Dr. Peebles was getting too close to bar-b-q-ing the educational establishment’s sacred cows. They are feeling the heat... Doug Mann responds Yes, given the way the district is run, many parents need, have found, or are looking for an escape route for their children. However, it seems to me that the job of the Minneapolis school superintendent should be to correct rather than ignore the problems that are motivating parents to seek an escape route for their children. The district's best schools are heavily concentrated in the district's wealthiest and nearly all-white neighborhoods. For a majority of nonwhite and poor white students, the public school options have been narrowed to low and middle-tier public schools, dead-end curriculum tracks in some of the better public schools, and charter schools. Charter schools have to make due with a lot less public funding per pupil than the schools that are owned and operated by the district. Complaints about Peebles that are making the school board sit up and take notice appear to be coming from white parents in the Southeast quadrant of the city. That's where many of the city's middle and lower tier schools are located. That's where a majority of white students are not thriving academically in the public schools. One of our list members, Lynnell Mickelsen stated, "Look, my kids are in the Southwest area schools and Dr. Peebles has basically left these schools alone. So if parents like me were only looking out for our own kids, we would too shut-up and color. Why risk bringing on a round of retribution? But as a citizen, I want the whole district to succeed..." I doubt that the school board and Peebles want to rile up the school community in SW Minneapolis. There is a lot of support for the status quo there, which is why the issue of closing the education access gap is not being addressed by the School Board, Thandiwe Peebles and her supporters, and the Star-Tribune. On the other hand, there is some support in SW Minneapolis for the kind of school reform agenda that I advocate. In the general election of 2002 the highest level of support for my candidacy was in ward 13 (the extreme SW corner of Minneapolis). -Doug Mann, King Field Candidate for 8th ward city council http://educationright.com/blog REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
